THOMAS HUTCHINSON 



LAST ROYAL GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS 



ONE of the most encouraging features of the age in 

 which we live is the rapidity with which the bitter 

 feelings attendant upon a terrible civil war have faded 

 away and given place to mutual friendliness and 

 esteem between gallant men who, less than thirty years 

 ago, withstood one another in deadly strife. Among 

 our public men who hunger for the highest offices, a 

 few Rip van Winkles are still to be found who, with- 

 out sense enough to realize the folly and wickedness of 

 their behaviour, try now and then to fan into fresh life 

 the dying embers of sectional prejudice and distrust ; 

 but their speech has lost its charm, and those that bow 

 the ear to it are few. The time is at hand when we 

 may study the great Civil War of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury as dispassionately as we study that of the seven- 

 teenth ; and the warmest admirer of Cromwell and 

 Lincoln may rejoice in belonging to a race of men 

 that has produced such noble Christian heroes as 

 Lucius, Viscount Falkland, and General Robert Lee. 

 Such a time seems certainly not far off when we see 

 how pleasantly the generals of opposing armies can 

 now sit down and tell their reminiscences, and discuss 

 each other's opinions and conduct in the pages of a 

 popular magazine. 



